1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to apparatus for the display and dispensing of lottery tickets and more specifically to such apparatus that has the ability for counting the lottery tickets that are dispensed and maintaining a record thereof.
1. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous states throughout the United States have implemented a variety of lottery games as a generating means of additional revenue for the state. One of the more popular types of lottery games that are offered is what are commonly referred to as instant lottery games. Tickets for instant lottery games are preprinted and upon their purchase, the purchaser can determine relatively quickly whether they are a winner of a prize.
Lottery tickets are sold in a variety of retail establishments and are commonly found in grocery stores and convenience stores. Lottery tickets in many cases are dispensed manually by the simple process of detaching a ticket or tickets from a ticket pack, according to the requirements of the ticket purchaser. However, with a variety of different types of instant lottery games now being offered it has become common place for establishments selling such tickets to use different types of ticket display and dispensing devices for the tickets.
The retailer who sells a lottery ticket receives only a small portion of the ticket price. Accordingly, it is highly important for the retailer to accurately account for each ticket that is received and sold. Most common ticket display and dispensing devices on the market today do not provide the ability to in any way keep track of the tickets that are dispensed therefrom and it is necessary for the retailers using such devices to utilize manual accounting systems for keeping track of tickets that are sold from their establishments.
As a means of providing an efficient and effective device for the dispensing and accounting of lottery tickets that are sold, various types of lottery ticket vending machines have been developed as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,383,572; 3,978,958; 4,982,337; and 5,222,624. Although such vending devices appear to be highly efficient in dispensing and accounting for the lottery tickets sold, they are expensive to purchase, are relatively complex to operate and maintain, and take up more space than is normally available for ticket dispensing devices.
Several companies have just recently begun advertising and offering new types of ticket vending devices used as means for maintaining an accurate accounting of the tickets dispensed. Both Interlott Technologies, Inc. and On-point Technology Systems, Inc. now offer such display and vending devices. U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,292 B1 discloses yet another type of ticket counting apparatus that utilizes a friction wheel for monitoring the amount of ticket travel to maintain a ticket count, and a stress sensing means that detects the perforations between the tickets to verify the ticket count provided by the friction wheel.
The present invention is an alternative to the type of devices offered by Interlott Technologies and On-point Technology Systems and also is designed to provide a more efficient system of ticket counting that is not dependent upon perforation sensing. Furthermore, the present invention is designed to provide a relatively inexpensive but highly efficient means for accurately maintaining a count of those lottery tickets that are dispensed at a particular retail establishment.